Thursday, 29 July 2010

* The Wings of Phoebus* The Pots of Pan* The Skin of Marsyas* The Feet of Sciron* The Earlobes of Æsop* The Shoelaces of Jupiter* The Clangers of Paris

A full-length metafictional novel describing the "unusual escapades of a self-exploding golem with a twisted horn and attitude somewhere on the astral plane and also on foot right here..." Partly inspired by Mike Mignola's 'Hellboy' character, partly inspired by the works of Philip José Farmer. Cover art by Steve Upham.

A compound novel detailing the life and adventures of Mr Gum, an obscene and pompous Creative Writing tutor, with his sidekicks, Fellatio Nelson and Detective Inspector Ynch Short of the Yard. The novel is divided into four parts. The first part is a satire on the teaching of creative writing; the second is a satire on crime fiction; the third is a satire on detective fiction; and the fourth is a satire against satire. Only the second edition of this novel contains the 'Sticky White Hands' and 'I am a Slimy Man' chapters.

Contents:

Part One: The Creative Writing Tutor* Oh, Whistle While You Work, and I’ll Come to You, My Dwarf * Boo to a Goose * Whaling Well * The Tenant of Arcimboldo Hall * Canon Alberic’s Photo-Album

A sequel to Maurice Richardson's classic 1950s gothic comedy, The Exploits of Engelbrecht.

"The Further Exploits of Engelbrecht, abstracted from The Secret Chronicles of The Surrealist Sportsman's Club by A.N. Other, hidden on the orders of the Ruling Committee but dug up again by Rhys Hughes, and authenticated at perilous emotional cost by a selection of mythological beasts including Harpies, Unicorns, Manticores, Zaratans, Vainglorious Chimeras, the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary and a Squonk..."

Contents:

Gauntlet of Gorgons * Far on Bicycles * Young Werther Cheers Up * Surfing the Solar Wind * The North Face of the Ego * Tug of Worlds * Engelbrecht at the Eisteddfod * A Mermaid Supper * Last Tango in Atlantis * A Sandal Waiting to Happen * A Monkey for all Seasons * The Destruction of Destruction * Engelbrecht and Ubu * A Sumwot Labud Sattire * The Chronic Argonauts Get Better

The Münchhausen of PorthcawlCastor on Troubled Waters * Canis Raver * The Plucked Plant * When Wales Played Asgård * Interstellar Domestic * The Cream-Jest of Unset Custard * The Day the Town of Porthcawl was Accidentally Twinned with the Capital of the Cheese and Biscuits Empire

Foreword * Thinner Air * Troubleroot * Goblin Sunrise * The Two Kingdoms * The Taming of the Old Woman who Lived in a Shrew * Thief Among Thieves * Below the Carnival * The Muse Ouroboros * Accordion Beach * The Mice Will Play * The Desiccated Sage * Two Fat Men in a Very Thin Country * Niddala * Sending Freedom Far Away * The Impregnable Fortress * The Bathing Bells * Doom Laden Haven * The Six Sentinels * In Moonville * But it Pours * The City that was Itself * The Man who Gargled with Gargoyle Juice * The Tallest Midget * The Kissable Climes * The Non-Existent Viscount in the Trees * When the Microscopic Giants Took Over Happenstance * Venus and Stupid * Von Ryan’s Daughter’s Express * In Sunsetville * Fable with Turkish Coffee * Sir Cheapskate * Playing Impossible Instruments * Afterword

"In an infinity of universes, where everything must happen, there exists one cosmos that is particularly strange. And not only strange but of immeasurable value... When interstellar politics faces a new kind of metaphysics the outcome of the struggle is always in doubt. Beautiful Sappho Ritsos has an immense responsibility on her shoulders, for she has been charged with the task of saving a solar system made of solid diamond from the most seductive and manipulative space pirate in the history of commerce. Peace on two separate Earths is at stake, the economies of nations and the sanity of humanity itself! But how does all this concern a simple goatherd and a man made of bronze?"

* The Fury Machine * The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Dirigible * Cutting Back * The Cat * The Smile Inside * Lunette * Necessity is the Mother * A Length of Rope * The Seed of the Damned * A Family Resemblance * Rancid Kumquats are Not the Only Fruit * Six Characters in Search of an Executioner * The Swiss Family Abacus * The Second Picture * Madonna Park * The Death of Ganymede * The Skull Farmers * The Crippled Gollywog's Fox Hunt * Crash With Shopping Trolleys * The Business Flight * The Sound of Music in Hell * The Century Just Gone * Sailing to the Island of Tools on the Ship of Fools * The Gibbon in the Garrett * The Decay of the Pilgrim

The book serves as a parody and homage to Jorge Luis Borges' collection A Universal History of Infamy... It was published in Portuguese translation as Uma nova história universal da infâmia in April 2006. Greek and Spanish editions appeared in 2007. The contents that follow are for the original American edition only and include the names of the authors who are parodied in the relevant sections.

"Milk Wood is not a nice place to be. With the passing of generations, it has curdled. At night it casts a buttery light on the moon. Fortunately, all the action in this book occurs elsewhere. It mostly happens in a warped version of the music industry or in an impossible tavern or in a future where everything is illegal. It sometimes even happens outside the narrative. But never in Milk Wood. Never. Milk Wood is barely even mentioned. For it is not a nice place to be."

Taller StoriesPrologue * Rainbow's End * Ghost Holiday * Those Wonderful Words * Learning to Fly * Learning to Fall * The Banshee * The Queen of Jazz * Anna and the Dragon * Three Friends * The Rake and the Fool * Goblin Sunrise * The Juggler * The Peat Fire * Knight on a Bear Mountain * Something About a Demon * The Furious Walnuts * The Illustrated Student * The Story with a Clever Title * The Silver Necks * Never Hug an Aardvark * Epilogue

The Long Chin of the LawThe Catastrophe Trials * The Crime Continuum * Judgment Day * The Thirty-Nine Million Steps * The Impossible Mirror * Crawling King Prawn * Pyramids of the Purple Atom * The Suppertime Sting * The Mischief Towers

Introduction by Michael Moorcock * Portrait of an Artist As a Rusty Bus * The Lute and the Lamp * Toastmaster, Buttermistress * Journey Through a Wall * The Marsh Callow * Story from a Lost Anthology * Less Is More * Jellydämmerung! * The Macroscopic Teapot * Fallow * The Crab * Pyramid and Thisbe * The Lover and the Grave * The Evil Side of Reginald Burke * Asparagus on the Tooth * A Languid Elagabalus of the Tombs * Owlbeast * Tin in the Soul * Cockatrice at the Door * Robin Hood’s New Mother * The New Giraldus

Two linked novellas packaged into one volume. The first novella is one of the major installments in the 'Chaud-Mellé' cycle of stories. The second was written in the "shape of a tesseract" and features the extraordinary philosophical villain, Bartleby Cadiz.

A novella concerning the adventures of the highwayman Robin Darktree as he searches for gold he buried when he was younger. Having forgotten the location of the trove, he carries a living portrait of his younger self on his back who does know where it is, but who seeks to double cross his partner!